THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, August 22, 1995 TAG: 9508220285
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
From Bear Grass to the reedy wetlands of Hyde County, Republican Rep. Walter B. Jones Jr. prowled the 3rd Congressional District Monday sizing up Democrats who may run against him next year.
One possible opponent who plans to keep Jones guessing is Robert V. ``Bobby'' Owens Jr., Democratic chairman of the Dare County Board of Commissioners and Gov. James B. Hunt's eastern North Carolina troubleshooter.
``I know you expect a candidate to say this, but a lot of people in the 3rd District - a whole lot - have asked me to run for Congress,'' Owens said Monday while he was escorting the governor on a tour of eastern counties.
``I'm not saying I'm going to run - not yet - but I'm certainly thinking very seriously about it,'' he said.
That was the strongest statement of political intentions to come from the longtime Outer Banks restaurateur, and it was said after Henson P. Barnes, a Goldsboro attorney and former president pro-tem of the state Senate, told friends he didn't think he'd enter the 3rd District race.
Barnes, when he retired from the legislature, had as much to do as anybody with handing the pro-tem's powerful office to state Sen. Marc Basnight, D-Dare. Basnight is a brother-in-law of Owens and the two influential party leaders have been mutually supportive in their election years.
``I talked to Henson over the weekend and what I heard made me do a lot of thinking,'' said Owens at his office in New Bern, where he hangs his hat as Hunt's eastern representative. The rest of the time Owens can be found in the Dare County commissioners office in Manteo.
Meanwhile, R.V. Owens III, son of Bobby Owens and a Dare County member of the Board of Transportation, also seemed to eliminate himself as a candidate for Jones' seat. For months, young Owens has been quietly organizing a congressional election team to help him run against Jones next year.
``Things have changed,'' said R.V. Owens, also a Dare County restaurateur., ``I'm deeply involved in Governor Hunt's re-election campaign and that will be my priority for the foreseeable future.''
With powerful political friends in the 3rd District, Bobby Owens hopes to win over the conservative Democrats who voted for Jones - and elected a Republican Congressman from an area that had been a Democratic stronghold for more than a century.
Jones, seeking a second term, also comes from a political family. He is the namesake son of a Democrat who served 12 terms in Congress from the Albemarle before his death three years ago.
When Old Guard Democrats failed to support Walter Jr. as a candidate to fill his father's unexpired term, the younger Jones became a Republican and subsequently defeated five-term U.S. Rep. H. Martin Lancaster, D-Goldsboro, in the 1994 GOP sweep.
As a Republican, the younger Jones only carried eight of the 19 -counties in the new 3rd Congressional District, but they were the more populous voting areas.
``You're always running in politics and that's what I'm doing this morning,'' said the younger Jones during his whistle stop in Elizabeth City Monday.
``So far I've appeared on two local radio talk shows and tonight I'll be in Bear Grass, on the way to my home in Farmville.
``And listen: There were 47 supporters, including Democrats, at a GOP rally we just attended in Hyde County and that's a real turnout down there,'' Jones Jr. added.
Jones, one of 73 freshmen in the U.S. House of Representatives, said campaign money will be the key to 1996 political victory.
``The winner could need as much as $400,000 to $500,000,'' he said.
Jones said his experiences as a freshman in Congress have been unusually fortunate.
``Usually during your first term you're expected to be seen and not heard,'' said Jones Jr. ``But the new Republican leadership put all of us in play. I've been called upon to manage legislation that would normally require very senior congressmen.'' by CNB